Crimea: a place to remember, learn from and return to

1st July 2024
Kyiv, Ukraine

Crimea is a particular and, in lots of regards, distinctive place in Ukraine. It has a particular local weather, breathtaking views of sea and mountains that may’t be discovered anyplace else within the nation. It has a multi-layered historical past with a wealthy heritage stretching from historical to trendy instances. That is the context that created an extremely numerous local people and tradition. It is a land that witnessed many necessary historic occasions and was dwelling to many individuals: from historical Greeks and Scythians to Armenians, Jews, Tatars, Karaims, Krymchaks, Italians, Ukrainians, and others.

I visited Crimea for the primary time 22 years in the past. As for a lot of others, it was a vacation journey for me, my spouse, Linda, and my daughter Catriona who on the time was simply 18 months outdated. We travelled to Bakhchysarai, Yalta, Sevastopol, Ai Petri. As a historian, even then, I used to be fascinated by the peninsula, with many place names that resonate in British navy historical past like Balaclava, and the Historic Greek and Christian stays in Khersones.

Since that first journey, I visited Crimea many instances once I was serving as Deputy Head of Mission within the British Embassy in Kyiv. As soon as I had the honour of accompanying the daughter of Winston Churchill, Baroness Mary Soames when she visited Livadia Palace the place her father held complicated negotiations throughout the World Warfare II, together with on the founding ideas of the UN, ideas that Russia so grossly violated in 2014.

Whereas Crimea is for a lot of a supply of completely satisfied vacation recollections, for others Crimea is initially their dwelling.

In 2014, Russia attacked the security of that dwelling, illegally annexing the peninsular. Crimean residents (Crimean Tatars, Ukrainians and others) demonstrated unbelievable resistance. They held mass protests in opposition to the Russian forces. They weren’t afraid of the armed Russian navy they usually clearly mentioned “no” to the Russian-imposed regime. Locals demonstrated their will for a free democratic future for Crimea inside a sovereign Ukraine. Many had been arrested, crushed, tortured and imprisoned. We keep in mind all of their sacrifices and their bravery to withstand on this means.

Since then, the persecutions and human rights abuses haven’t stopped. The folks of Crimea have been subjected to pressured passportisation, militarisation and indoctrination of youngsters, destruction of Ukrainian and Crimean Tatar cultural heritage, the ban of free impartial media, environmental crimes, and violations of spiritual rights. Crimeans have been forcefully mobilised into the Russian navy and made to struggle in opposition to their fellow Ukrainians. They’re bombarded by a single narrative pushed by the Kremlin. Tons of of civilians had been pressured to go away their properties on the peninsula in concern of being arrested or killed.

In some methods, in Crimea the Kremlin confirmed us the techniques, insurance policies and abuses that it will pursue in additional Ukrainian territories after the beginning of the full-scale invasion.

In the present day, Russia makes use of Crimea in its warfare in opposition to Ukraine as a navy base, as a supply of pressured recruitment and as a jail. Tons of of civilian Ukrainians are detained there, away from the remainder of the nation and the world. This contains folks from different Ukrainian territories that Russia has taken management of, together with 217 Crimean political prisoners, 134 of whom are Crimean Tatars. It additionally contains Ukrainian kids who had been despatched to “summer season camps” in Crimea and pressured there to resign their homeland. Russia’s grip on Crimea is affecting not solely the folks of Crimea, who themselves are successfully imprisoned, unable to go away to different elements of their homeland: Ukraine.

The UK authorities’s place is evident – Crimea is Ukraine. Our dedication to upholding the fundamental worldwide ideas of sovereignty and territorial integrity is why the UK has remained steadfast in its help to Ukraine and to Crimea for the previous ten years – and why we’ll proceed that help for so long as it takes.

Our help for Ukraine’s defence in opposition to Russia’s invasion contains the longer term liberation of all elements of Ukraine. We’re dedicated to making sure the world doesn’t overlook Russia’s crimes in illegally annexing Crimea, the violations and abuses it has dedicated, and the repression that the Crimean folks face day by day.

We are going to proceed to lift the subject of Crimea in worldwide fora.  In Kyiv our Embassy has held witness testimony occasions to supply a platform for the voices of Crimeans to be heard by the broader diplomatic neighborhood. We additionally help the Crimea Platform and we fund academic campaigns about Crimean historical past, tradition and traditions. We help Ukraine’s work on planning for Crimea’s reintegration. We stay a powerful companion of Ukraine, of Crimea, and of Crimea’s future as an inalienable a part of Ukraine.

I do know the day will come when vacationers from everywhere in the world can as soon as once more go to and see the fantastic thing about Crimea. However I significantly stay up for the day when those that name it dwelling can return.

I stay up for seeing Crimean Tatars and Ukrainians having the ability lastly to return to the peninsula, and for individuals who have lived for 10 years in Crimea with out freedom to lastly stay there in freedom with out persecution. I can not wait to see Crimea and its folks flourishing as soon as once more and having fun with freedom as a part of Ukraine. And I hope the UK will have the ability to play its half in restoring Crimea’s financial system and infrastructure, with the help of UK buyers in rebuilding Crimea for a brighter future.

I’m honoured to know a few of these main Crimean and Crimean Tatar activists who’ve borne the brunt of Russia’s persecution and at the moment are pressured to work exterior of the peninsula because of the Russian occupation. When Crimea is free once more, I stay up for visiting them and lots of others of their properties within the land of their ancestors.

When my dad and mom came visiting me in Kyiv twenty years in the past I used to be delighted to take them to Crimea to indicate all of them of its wonders. It was October, and we stopped off on the street from Yalta to Sevastopol on the stunning bay of Batiliman. Swimming within the heat waters there, from a quiet sandy seaside is one in every of my abiding recollections of this excellent a part of Ukraine. I stay up for the day once I can present this distinctive place to my British associates who’ve by no means had the pleasure of visiting it.

Qırım serbest olacaq! Crimea shall be liberated!